Snowed Out!!!

OK...right now we are sitting in the cafeteria at Canyon Village in Yellowstone National Park. We all have our computers out doing a little work while we "cool our heels" waiting for the road to open on up to Cooke City, Montana. We had snow last night, enough that the ground was covered when we got up. Evidently on north of here they had more snow and the roads are icy. The rangers say we may be able to be on the road by noon. More adventure.

In the meantime, I will post the blog from the day before yesterday...which I titled BEATY AND THE BEAST because is was a beautiful ride in the morning, but turned very nasty by the end of the day...including quite a hail storm.

We haven't had any phone or wifi services for the past couple days, but were able to find a network (called Moose) that seems to work here in the cafeteria. So here goes...

For reasons that are not clear, I have not been able to upload the pictures...so will do that later.

Word is the highway north will open in an hour, so maybe we will make it on up to Cooke City later in the day.


June 16, 2010

Jackson Hole to Lewis Lake
67 miles.

Beauty and the Beast

Today was a day of huge contrasts. We started out at 7 a.m. this morning in partly cloudy (partly sunny) mild conditions and rode north toward Yellowstone National Park. We took one last pass by the Grand Tetons and they were even more beautiful than ever. There were clouds above and below the peaks, but the sun was shining brightly on the peaks themselves. I have included a couple of pictures. They were just astonishingly beautiful.

We then rode on north and went by Jackson Lake where we experienced even more fabulous views of the Tetons, coated with a fresh batch of snow over night. We finally pulled ourselves away and started a lengthy climb toward our evening destination, Lewis Lake. About ten miles from “home”, we noticed very threatening clouds forming above us. We stopped to add rain gear, and before we could even get our jackets fastened it was raining hard and beginning to hail. This time it was not little hailstones…or just a few…it was serious HAIL.

We ran across the road where there was a stone wall and backed up against it to protect ourselves. I found a small rock overhang where I curled up and at least had my head protected. It hailed for several minutes to the point that my jacket and pants were fairly covered with hail stones. Fortunately Cindy and Kathy saw the danger coming and came back up the hill with the motor home. They found us hiding under rocks. But by then the storm was passing and we got back on our bikes and road the rest of the way to Lewis Lake.

We did have one “ride” today. In Yellowstone National Park, they were doing road work and we were told we could not ride through it. We hitched a ride in the back of a pick-up driven by a cowboy/rancher from Utah. He was still another in a long line of “angels” who have helped us along the way. We got a lift DOWN a wonderful hill that we were looking forward to riding. Oh well…. The title of this blog could have been, “Utah Cowboy picks up two guys with spandex pants!” , but the bad weather at the end of the day took precedence.

Tomorrow the ride is short…about 50 miles on up to Canyon Village. But we have been told there will be snow during the night and it will be cold in the morning. Is anyone out there warm these days? It feels like we’ve moved back into February.

We have no service of any kind tonight so this blog will have to be added tomorrow, Thursday, June 17th. Hope you are all well and WARM!